


The First Time

by flintxwood



Category: Saga (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 09:51:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8441113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flintxwood/pseuds/flintxwood
Summary: Upsher wasn't sure what to make of the guy the Chief partnered him with but he definitely didn't think he mean as much to him as he ended up.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Don’t mind me, just recently got obsessed with the Saga comics and became absolute trash for these two.

Upsher wasn’t sure how he felt about being partnered with a photographer by the Chief. He was a huge believer in the power of words to the point he felt photos were simply unnecessary. However, some of the photographers he worked with were quite good and he couldn’t deny it. Apparently he was paired with some new guy though so he could be completely shit at photography since the standards for this Tabloid wasn’t too high up. Quite frustrating when he was such a talented writer. 

He took a sip of his coffee and noticed Chief walk up to him, a guy on his tail. 

“This is your photographer, Doff,” he said gesturing to him. Doff nodded in acknowledgment at him. His skin was green and was shorter than him. He was short but made up for it in muscle. A lot of muscles actually. He was dressed kind of drab, in cargo short, an orange t shirt covered with a shabby hooded jacket, a cap, uneven facial hair, and completed with a newt eye lens hanging from his neck. They looked like complete opposites, with his suit jacket, collared button up, and dress pants. Why Chief felt like he and the newbie would make a good team was beyond him. 

“You know the drill, he’ll go on stories with you, snap some pictures, make your stories more interesting,” Chief continued. 

“Right,” Upsher said, his lack of interest showing in his voice. 

“Just continue the parliament story you were working on,” and with that Chief left them alone. 

“Parliament story?” Doff asked raising his brow.

“Parliament’s debating whether or not you can fire someone for being gay. Definitely going to be protesters so we’re gonna cover that.”

“Huh, okay.”

His reaction was vague. It was treading on thin ice honestly. It’s not like Doff had to know he was gay, and even if he wasn’t okay with it it’s not like that was anything new. It’s not like he’d made a cruel comment. 

“Yeah, I covered the protests when they decriminalised it.”

“Oh, I remember that. There were fucking riots.”

Still a vague opinion. At least he hadn’t called gay people ‘fags’ or ‘poofs’, which said a lot. 

After collecting what he needed they swam down to parliament house. Not to Upsher’s surprise there was already protesters there. Unlike last time, there weren’t counter protesters, yet at least. Upsher knew last time people got fired after outing themselves. That’s honestly what kept Upsher from going himself, aside from work. He couldn’t risk his livelihood like that. 

Doff snapped some pictures of the protesters and Upsher took notes. It wasn’t too loud since people didn’t know the results yet but some people had started a chant. 

“Fuck the faggots, fuck the faggots, fuck the faggot.” Upsher had to stop himself from grimacing. 

“Do you think they’ll pass it?” Doff asked, lowering his camera and staring at the protesters.

“Nah,” Upsher said, hiding the disappointment in his voice. “If anything, this is to seem slightly progressive to the rest of the universe.

“Yeah,” Doff mumbled. “I guess you’re right.”

Doff snapped a few more pictures and Upsher took notes. It was pretty uneventful, the absence of counter protesters prevented a riot. You’d think Upsher would be used to the hurtful signs these sort of people tended to have but it still hurt. The jabs of ‘poofta’ and ‘disgusting fags’ never failed to hurt him. It was a reminder home will never see him as anything but worthless. 

In the end the bill didn’t get passed and Upsher watched the protesters cheer at the news. Pathetic they would cheer over someone not losing their job over something they couldn’t help. 

“Come on,” Doff said. “I need to develop these.”

…

A drink was the perfect thing to unwind after a stressful week at work. Upsher had written his article, trying his hardest to not to sound like he had any sort of biases, the last thing he needed was to tip off the Chief. He had to admit Doff’s pictures complimented his article well though. Doff clearly had experience in photography, pretty good experience. He’d wonder why he was working in tabloids of all places but he was the one who could take his writing farther yet stuck in this area. 

The bar he decided to swim to was one of the few underground gay clubs. He hadn’t hooked up with anyone in a while but maybe he’d try tonight. Something to make him feel better after the bill in parliament was dismissed. 

“Rough weak?” Xork asked him.

“Just tired, I had to cover what happened in parliament,” he explained.

“Oh that pissed me off, only reason we’re not viewed as criminals anymore is pressure from the rest of the galaxy. I have no doubt married men go to Sextillion.”

Upsher nodded. He knew that for a fact, he covered a story on a politician doing exactly that not too long ago. 

“It’s fucking bullshit at this point,” Upsher muttered. 

“Mhm, want anything else?” 

Upsher shook his head. “Not in the mood to get hammered, just relax.”

Xork nodded and went to serve someone else. Upsher turned on his stool and surveyed the room. There were some familiar faces and some he hadn’t seen before. Going somewhere like this was dangerous. The police had come here more than once but they were thankfully on nights Upsher wasn’t there. He didn’t come here too much, really only when he needed to unwind. He wasn’t expecting to meet the love of his life here or anything, he couldn’t exactly risk that. 

Then his eyes landed on someone, someone he hadn’t expected to see.

Doff.

Their eyes held each other across the room. Upsher was frozen, his hand tensed around his glass. He was waiting for Doff to move first and he did. He headed right for the exit, and Upsher saw him swim off frantically through the window. 

“You okay?” Xork asked.

Upsher turned back to him. “Uh, I don’t know. I think I saw someone I knew.”

“Oh yeah, happens too much to me.”

Upsher nodded. He’d never ran into anyone he knew here which probably added to the shock of seeing Doff.

Work’s going to be interesting.

…

When he got to his office that Monday he saw Doff looking through his camera film behind his desk. 

“Morning,” he said slowly, closing the door behind him. 

“Oh, hey,” Doff said slowly. 

“Have a nice weekend?” Upsher asked slowly. 

“Uh… yeah it was okay.”

“Mhm,” Upsher said and sat behind his desk, shuffling through his notes. 

“You’re not gonna tell anyone, are you?” Doff asked, kind of softly.

Upsher looked at him. “No, why would I do that?”

“Just… checking.” 

“Right, okay.”

“Mhm… Uh well we have work to do anyway.”

“Right, I need to develop some pictures anyway.”

Upsher nodded and watched him walk out. He ran his fingers through his hair. Clearly their relationship had gone somewhere weird. No one in his everyday life knew, fuck not even his parents knew. 

He shuffled through his papers and sighed. If his secret had to be stuck with anyone at least it was someone like him.

…

They’d been partners for a while. They actually made a pretty good team, Doff wasn’t as charismatic as Upsher but he did have some charm to him that he was able to get information out of people too. Even if he was the writer they were on equal footing. Upsher and Doff had a certain nice ring to it. 

“Are you seriously still working on that article?” Doff asked, a mug of coffee in his hand. It was late so that’s probably why he was questioning him. He saw Doff get out of the developing room so he’d probably just gotten out of there. 

“Writing takes time, Doff,” he replied. “You heading home?” 

“Yeah, but maybe you should finish up before Chief kicks you out.”

“Hm, good point. Maybe I’ll finish it at home,” Doff nodded in response and turned to walk out before and idea came into his head. 

“Hey, are your photos done?” 

Doff turned back to him. “Yeah?”

“Well, I find that your photos really add to my articles, and I hate not referencing the photos so do you think you could get them for me.”

“Oh, yeah sure,” Doff handed him the envelope and Upsher shuffled through them. 

“These are great, but do you want to come to my place? I mean, I want good descriptions of the photos and since they’re yours, you’d give a good opinion.”

Doff looked at him, like he was unsure. He seemed hesitant but he nodded. “Okay, sure.”

…

“These are seriously really good,” Upsher said as he shuffled through the pictures. “Where’d you previously work?”

“Gadell,” Doff shrugged.

Upsher’s eyes shot up to him. “Wait, you worked at Gadell? Like a legit newspaper?” Doff shrugged. “Why’d you downgrade to Hebdomadal?”

“Uh, I got fired. It’s sort of got out that I’m gay. It was nothing more than a rumour but my boss took it seriously.”

“Fuck, that’s awful,” Upsher said softly. “That’s my worst fear honestly.”

“Tell me about it, it’s worse when it actually happens. I’ve completely deprived myself from dating to avoid it yet it still happened.”

Upsher shook his head. “Same here, such bull right?”

Doff nodded. “Yeah, still don’t see a reason to bother though.” 

“Well, Gadell clearly lost their best photographer.”

Doff smiled. “Thanks.”

“But I’m curious why you downgraded so much.”

“You’d be surprised how tightknit higher up press is. Tabloids seemed like the easiest and most-low key. Gadell really looks down on them, so I figured getting a job here could be a little easier,” Doff explained, with a shrug. “What about you? You’re a pretty great writer so why not branch out?”

Upsher shrugged. “It’s all I could get when I was starting out, and I just never tried getting anything better.” 

“I guess it’s a secure job.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely one of the better writers on the team so I can pretty much have this job until I retire.”

“You could definitely get a higher paying job if you tried.”

Upsher shrugged. “This job isn’t too bad; I think you’re just used to being higher up there.”

Doff snorted. “I guess. Anyway, I should get home. Just hand me the photos tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you at work.”

…

Upsher remembered exactly why he didn’t allow himself get close to other guys, developing feelings. But of course the one guys he ended up developing feelings for way gay too. He couldn’t risk it, he just couldn’t.

“How’s the article going?” Doff asked, stepping into their office with an envelope that probably held knew photographs. 

“Still can’t figure out the right words,” Upsher muttered in response. 

“Can I see?”

The thing about Upsher was that he hated sharing his writing before he was done. However, he still felt himself nodding and Doff walked behind him, reading over his shoulder. Upsher felt goose bumps on his skin as he did. He tried to keep his breathing even has he did. 

“It’s really good,” Doff concluded. 

“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right.”

“I do like the heart in it, you write with a lot of it.”

“You think?” Upsher asked and turned to Doff. He was still close; his hand was placed on the back of his chair. He felt his heart start to race and he tried to not let it show. 

“Definitely, it’s definitely in the right direction.” And he stepped back and maybe he imagined it, but Doff’s cheeks were tinted pink. 

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Upsher smiled.

…

Working together at Upsher’s apartment had become common, maybe a little too common. Nothing had happened between them but Upsher felt like they were on the edge of something happening. There was no barrier between them at this point and they were getting far too touchy. Standing close as Doff read over shoulder had become him resting his chin on Upsher’s shoulder as he read. It felt like something would eventually happen and his feelings for Doff were only getting stronger. He was still trying his hardest to ignore them but the more time they spent together the harder it was, and it didn’t help they saw each other almost every day. 

“I think I’m done,” Upsher grinned. “Wanna read it?”

“Sure, I think at this point I’m basically your personal editor.” 

“Well, I like you way better than the Chief.”

Doff smiled at that and ducked his head down, getting the papers from Upsher. Upsher could’ve sworn Doff’s cheeks were tinting pink. He read over the draft and smiled. “Really good, as usual,” he said, looking back up at him and slid it back to Upsher. Upsher looked down at his draft. He was definitely happy with it and Doff’s praises definitely made him like it more. 

“Can I see the photographs you’ve got? Maybe I can use them to add more.”

Doff nodded and took the envelope out of his bag and handed him the pictures. Upsher shuffled through the photos but he could feel Doff looking at him, and his eyes burned into his skin. 

“Upsher?” Doff said hesitantly. 

Upsher turned to him and before he could process anything Doff pressed his lips to Upsher’s. He was caught off guard for a second but he was quickly kissing him back, cupping his face in his hands. God, it’s been far too long since he’d kissed anybody, and he doesn’t think he’d ever kissed anybody he’d really liked. Doff’s arms were wrapped around his waist and he could feel he definitely worked out. 

He knew this would happen eventually but it felt so nice for it to kiss him. Like the tension between them had finally been ceased. He didn’t think about what would happen to them but he didn’t care.

“Hey,” Upsher said, pulling away from Doff, Doff looking at him with confusion and slight disappointment. “For the record, I don’t ever want kids, like I know it’s impossible and they’d never let us adopt but I don-“

“Upsher, shut up,” he said and Upsher happily did when Doff kissed him again.

…

“If the Chief finds out we’re both fired,” Doff said, his heard rested next to Upsher. 

“Who said he has to know?” Upsher asked. 

“But what if he finds out?”

Upsher kissed his shoulder and exhaled. “He won’t. How would he?”

“I don’t know, maybe he’ll catch on or something.”

Upsher played with Doff’s black hair smiling at him. “He hasn’t caught on yet, has he?”

“I just don’t want to be fired again.”

Upsher pulled him closer and kissed him. “It won’t happen,” he mumbled.

Doff relaxed against him. “I love you.”

Upsher smiled softly “I love you too.”

The first time he said that had always felt like the best.


End file.
